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This is a great inspiration for any clothing company that is lead by a true apparel designer and not just another business men or women capitalizing off of a profitable market.

MVBY the abbreviation of My Vintage Baby clothing received the Earnie Award which according to Yahoo Finance has the same clout as an oscar or grammy in the children’s apparel industry. MVBY won the award for the Earnshaw Magazine Sportswear 2T-6X category.

My Vintage Baby Clothing was started in 2003 with the “Collections By Jessica” collection and in four short years has expanded and is selling in over 600 stores nationwide.

Earnshaw Magazine is a leading publication for the children’s apparel industry and has been honoring manufacturers and designers with design excellence in the market for over 3 decades. The companies are nominated within 20 categories including: accessories, footwear, licensed apparel, sportswear, formal wear, outerwear, swim wear, infants and toddlers’ apparel.

The ceremony will be next week on Monday October 15 at the Jacob Javitz Center in New York alongside a runway show.

As always with most fashion internships I try and find out a little about the company and its founders, but unfortunately there isn’t much information available for GBG Urban Couture on the net. Hmm…I don’t know if that is a good thing or a bad thing .

GBG is based out of Brooklyn, New York and is currently looking for an intern with experience as a seamstress or tailor. To sum it up you must have prior sewing experience and be willing to work with an expanding start-up company. You must be a self-starter, but also able to work in a group setting with a team. You will work directly with the Creative and Senior Designer on bringing the Fall 2007/08 fashion collection to life.

Any work done by the intern that has been approved may be used in your portfolio and will also be displayed on the GBG website.

If this is of any interest to you than apply by clicking here or sending an email with a resume and your availability to T_Brooks@GBGFashions.com

I can tell you one thing that I really liked about AIU Buckhead (Atlanta) is that we received entry to the database of online research sources and access to all the insider fashion industry networks for free…well it was probably factored into our tuition.

WGSN was one of them that I found very useful, but unfortunately it is also rather expensive. Anything worth its weight usually is right? WGSN is the world’s leading online research, trend analysis and news service for the fashion and style industry at least that is what their site heading says. I totally agree from some of the information I received from researching their database and most was pre-launch of my clothing line.

WGSN offers information on every segment of the fashion industry from retail to the catwalk and more. Latest news on design trends in womens wear to what new brands all the celebrities are checking for.

Many of you are familiar with raglan sleeves, but probably didn’t know that it had a more formal name in the fashion world.

The first thing that comes to mind when thinking of a raglan sleeve are the raglan baseball jersey shirts. Example below:

Most raglan sleeve shirts are identified by the seam of the arm connecting to the neck of the shirt front and the back.

Also see post on originator of the raglan sleeve.

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A unique fashion fact I found from the WWD website is that a British General named Field Marshal (known as Lord FitzRoy Somerset before 1852) Lord Raglan had raglan sleeves constructed for himself after losing his arm during the Crimean War in the charge of the Light Brigade in 1854-1856.

You can clearly see the stitched raglan sleeve although it was a little different back then in this picture:

The Crimean war is sometimes considered to be the first “modern” conflict in that it introduced technical changes which affected the future course of warfare for the world.

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Here’s a quick list for you designer-entrepreneurs running low on inspiration.

Digital Abstracts - My favorite website because of the incredible designs that people all over the world have created.

ComputerLove - Art in the real world as well as extremely creative designs.

Nice To Meet You - Very simple website that you can use to find a quite source of inpiration.

Digital Thread - One of the top sites for all types of designs and art. If you can’t find anything here, I’m not sure where you’ll find it.

Hope these few sites helped give you any kind of spark. If not I sometimes go outside and just walk around, looking at park benches or weird angles, city buses driving by or shadows created by different objects.

If you have any suggestions for finding inspiration, leave it in a comment, I would like to read ideas for finding inspiration also

Bruce

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I never really knew we had Bridal designers browsing Dobizo, but I guess you never know. I found a couple on the Fashion Business Network so I decided I better keep them up to date on the latest in bridal apparel trade shows and fashion weeks.

Arya Jennifer is a haute couture sewer who designs a bridal collection. Take a look at her profile on the Fashion Network by clicking here. (Nice Designs)

The Bridal Fashion Week is held in none other than New York at the Le Parker Meridien during the month of October 20-21. The Bridal Fashion Week is the to be place for anyone involved with bridal designs and the latest in bridal wear will be in display including the industry’s top manufacturers of bridal gowns, both moderate & designer, bridesmaids gowns & mother of the bride, flower girl, prom, special occasion resources and bridal accessories.

The above is only the surface of what bridal fashion week has to offer. Also bridal jewelry, floral & stage design, gifts & wedding favors, catering services and exclusive runway fashion shows featuring international couture bridal fashion and accessories designers.

I don’t really want to go too deep with information about this trade show, but it is definitely something anybody in the sewn products industry could attend to learn more about the industry fabrics.

The IFAI Industrial Fabrics Association International covers many industries from leather sewn products to aerospace to lettering and graphics. So it is not specifically for the apparel industry, but covers some parts. I was introduced to the IFAI show while writing about Assyst Bullmer which is a global provider of intelligent solutions for CAD/CAM for small businesses and how you could come see their products in action at the IFAI. If they are attending I’m pretty certain their are more providers in attendance.

During the IFAI 2007 there was informational symposiums and workshops in order to educate visitors on getting up to date with emerging trends, advanced technologies, heightening your “how-to” skills, for networking, and building relationships.

There was nearly 100 industry experts speaking on the value chain- from manufacturers, designers, architects, product development, marketing, to government and procurement.

By now if you have been keeping up with my blog you should know the meaning of the four terms within the title, but if not you can refer to these four daily definitions on them: PLM, CAM, PLM, PDM

Assyst Bullmer is a leading provider of intelligent solutions for small to medium sized businesses who can’t afford or don’t have the resources to implement and support a PLM system.

After reading about the solution they provide it sounds pretty concrete and have to say it got me excited not really the product itself, but the way you access. No equipment needed, but a personal computer and access to the internet where you can use the Myassyst.PLM solution globally.

They offer many solutions for the retail, apparel, furniture, automotive, technical textiles, aviation & aerospace, Marines, and other industry where a cost efficient design tool and management tool can be implemented.

Take a look at what they can do for your garment design and manufacturing process.

• Automated pattern making

This is a quick definition I had to cover in order to make a reference in a future article.

It is not directly related to the fashion industry, but one of the processes used in the industry could not function properly without it. (CAD)

A product data management system plays as a storage system while it contains and manages the different components product specifications (tech packs) , CAD sketches and drafts. PDM keeps all data intact while going through the different processes of a product from inception, to design, manufacturing, and so on until it is fully developed.

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DTG or direct to garment printing is a process that refers to ink being deposited directly to a garment from a special printer. Most likely if you are using the direct to garment printing method your garment will need to be a light color for most DTG machines, but some are available that allow printing on darker colors.

The great thing about DTG is it is more cost effective and are great for printing one or two shirts especially if your line consist of mainly t-shirts and you may need to do a quick sample print to see your design on the garment. Also great for clothing businesses that may want to print some cheaper shirts to promote an event or to give away with your company location or maybe stores where customers could purchase your product on the back.

Direct to garment printed shirts have good wash-ability and a soft hand (the ink is flat and in the shirt not on top like with plastisol) Most use 100% cotton garments when using DTG and it is more popular in the Decorated apparel industry or promotional product industry.

Liquid Graphics, a manufacturer of apparel for action-sports brands and rock groups. I thought this would be a great addition to the Industry page. Especially for many of the company’s that read Dobizo that may be interested in starting a action-sports themed fashion company and possibly launching at the ASR (Action Sports Retailer Show) arena.

The only thing negative I have to say about Liquid Graphics is the fact that their website is not fully functional yet and with a mildly established company just developing your online presence is not the best move for business.

For now unless you want to visit them at their Orange County, California office you check out some of their work from the collaboration with rock band Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington clothing company Ve’cel. Ve’cel is a premium t-shirt and hoodie fashion line that is available in higher end department stores and boutiques.

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